It could be termed as a rarest of the days when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had to turn down Afghanistan Cricket Board’s (ACB) genuine offer for hosting the second edition of the Afghanistan Premier League (APL) in the cricket-crazy country.

Earlier, the inaugural edition of the APL saw Balk Legends led by Mohammad Nabi laying hands on the coveted trophy.

Besides, Sharjah has hosted the maiden edition of the five-team APL tournament between October 5 and 21 in 2018.

Over the years, BCCI has immensely helped ACB to allow it’s players to practice in India and eventually helped them to host their home matches at Dehradun and Greater Noida.

Earlier, ACB has hosted the domestic professional Twenty20 event in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in which marquee players from distinct countries have had participated.

According to a Board’s official, BCCI had to turn down the offer due to its own T20 competition – Indian Premier League.

“The ACB did request us to host its league in India. But it would not be appropriate considering we have our own league (the IPL),” PTI quoted BCCI official as saying.

ACB had expected a helping hand when their officials had a meeting on May 16 in Mumbai. In that particular meeting, the officials from Afghan board had a brief discussion with BCCI’s CEO Rahul Johri and its GM Cricket Operations, Saba Karim.

Karim has often looked for opportunities to help cricket grown in different parts of the world as well.

On the other hand, Asadullah Khan has expected Lucknow as the third venue for Afghanistan due to an unavailability of a five-star hotel at first two home grounds. Thus, the reports suggested BCCI don’t have any problem whatsoever to a lot a third home venue for Afghanistan team.

“Since Dehradun doesn’t have a five-star hotel, hosting teams is an issue. We would prefer it to be Lucknow,” Asadullah said in his interview.

Also, BCCI is mulling over getting services of ACB’s coaches as per their request. Asadullah maintained it would help such coaches in a better possible way.

“It will be a great learning experience for our coaches. (And) they will get to be with the best in the business,” Asadullah concluded.

As many as ten coaches are being considered to work with different Ranji Trophy teams in the premium first-class tournament.

Tahir Ibn Manzoor is a staffer at Sportzwiki.com, who follows cricket like food after listening to running commentary on a transistor radio when he was only eight, and penned down the scorecard when he turned 11. Twitter, Instagram: TahirIbnManzoor